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ONLINE EXCLUSIVE Check out more pictures from the “Degrees of Immersion” exhibit in Watt Hall.
Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | VOL. 163, NO. 26 | www.dailytrojan.com monday, february 25, 2008
ladysmith black mambazo
The all-male Zulu choral group brings sounds
of Africa with a message of peace. 7
Kicking back
The USC national champion women’s
soccer team loses 3-1 to the
Mexico National Team. 20
USC student veterans
face limited resources
By KEVIN GASENDO
Daily Trojan
Between 150 and 175 student
military veterans at USC continue
to face a lack of support and social
programs intended to help ease stu-dents’
transition from military to
civilian life.
Military veterans enrolled at USC
who are making the shift — which
can be difficult, said Quence Smith,
USC’s Veterans Affairs coordinator
— have few departments, programs
or organizations to assist them.
The only USC department that
aids military veterans is the Office of
Veteran Affairs, which is housed in
the Office of Academic Records and
Registrar and only deals with enroll-ment
and financial issues.
The university has just one pro-gram
dedicated to college veterans:
The Marshall Military Veterans As-sociation,
which has nine members
and was created solely for students
earning a MBA.
Ralph Martinsen, the president of
the Marshall Military Veterans As-sociation
and a second-year MBA
candidate, spent four years in the
Marine Corps. and is still a captain
in the Corps. Reserve.
“I would love to expand our as-sociation
to the whole university,” he
said. “We want to get the undergrads
involved, and students in other de-partments
beyond the MBA pro-gram.”
Because there is not a group on
campus to help student veterans
transition to civilian life, many of
them said they learn to cope with the
changes on their own.
Chris Roessner, a commuter sena-tor
in USC’s Undergraduate Student
Government, enlisted in the Army
after high school six years ago and
served in Special Operations.
Roessner, who was part of the
initial invasion of Iraq in 2003 and
was on location when Saddam Hus-sein
was taken into custody, had a
The university has very few
programs for transitioning
from military to civilian life.
| see veterans, page 3 |
Photo courtesy of Ralph Martinsen
Service | Ralph Martinsen, pic-tured
here, is president of the
Marshall Military Veterans Assn.
Photo courtesy of Scott Lowe
Active duty | Scott Lowe, shown here on duty in Iraq, served two tours of duty between 2004 and
2006. He said he feels separate from many students on campus because of his experiences there.
Local schools plan
for state budget cuts
By KATELYN JOHNSON
Daily Trojan
Public schools in the USC com-munity
will soon experience budget
cuts caused by a statewide effort to
reduce California’s deficit.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
signed legislation Feb. 16 that elimi-nates
$4.8 billion in education fund-ing
by suspending guarantees set by
1988’s Proposition 98.
Proposition 98 guarantees 40 per-cent
of California’s general fund to
be spent on K-12 schools and com-munity
colleges. That 40 percent is
given mostly to K-12 schools, and
community colleges generally receive
around 10 percent.
Suspending Proposition 98’s
funds will make the schools’ budgets
tighter, and school officials said they
do not know how to respond be-cause
they do not have exact details
about available funds.
“Nobody knows the specifics of
anything — we just know general
stuff,” said Lynn Brown, principal
of L. B. Weemes Elementary School,
a member of the USC Family of
Schools. “It makes planning diffi-cult.”
Funding from Prop. 98 is
being suspended to try to
eliminate the state’s deficit.
| see budget, page 13 |
DPS unsupportive of new safety law
By KATE MAT H ER
Daily Trojan
A proposed provision to the
recently passed Higher Education
Act that would require college offi-cials
to notify and direct students,
faculty and staff within 30 minutes
of an emergency is receiving mixed
reactions from law enforcement
officials nationwide, including the
Department of Public Safety at
USC.
The Campus Law Enforcement
Emergency Response Act of 2007,
which is currently awaiting a Sen-ate
vote, not only mandates a
30-minute notification time frame
in case of a campus emergency, but
also requires that officials “direct
the actions” of the university, ac-cording
to the bill’s text.
It is because of this mandated
instruction that DPS Chief Carey
Drayton said he feels the bill would
be harmful to university safety.
“The issue of notification only
means I’m going to play like I’m
CNN Breaking News,” Drayton
said. “I can do that very easily. But
if I am expected to give direction
in that notification, that is what I
have a problem in doing. How can
I tell you what to do when I don’t
know the full extent of the situa-tion?”
Security on Campus, the watch-dog
group that lobbied Congress
to consider the bill, said recent
school shootings demonstrate the
need for a 30-minute time frame.
“At Northern Illinois University,
they had a 30-minute time frame,”
said Alison Kiss, program director
of Security on Campus. “Virginia
Tech took at least two hours. You
wonder would it have happened
at Virginia Tech had the students
been told to keep away from cam-pus.”
Virginia Tech has been criticized
DPS officials say the law
could actually be more
dangerous for students.
| see safety, page 12 |
Students are asked to get to
a safe area and avoid certain
buildings.
Police confi rm there has been a
shooting. All classes canceled and
campuses closed.
3:50 pM
Six deaths are confi rmed and shooter is
revealed to be a NIU graduate student.
8:15 pM
3:20 pM
Students told danger has
passed and they can return
to residence halls.
4:24 pM
Police confi rming
shooter is dead.
5:12 pM
Many of the shooting victims have been
transported to a hospital.
5:20 pM
4:10 pM
Police say scene is secure.
Students are notifi ed about
locations to obtain counseling.
4:31 pM
All NIU students are asked
to call their parents.
Source: www.rrstar.com
Opinion |
Columnist Beth Palkovic
looks at the history of
words in American poli-tics.
PAGE 6

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE Check out more pictures from the “Degrees of Immersion” exhibit in Watt Hall.
Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | VOL. 163, NO. 26 | www.dailytrojan.com monday, february 25, 2008
ladysmith black mambazo
The all-male Zulu choral group brings sounds
of Africa with a message of peace. 7
Kicking back
The USC national champion women’s
soccer team loses 3-1 to the
Mexico National Team. 20
USC student veterans
face limited resources
By KEVIN GASENDO
Daily Trojan
Between 150 and 175 student
military veterans at USC continue
to face a lack of support and social
programs intended to help ease stu-dents’
transition from military to
civilian life.
Military veterans enrolled at USC
who are making the shift — which
can be difficult, said Quence Smith,
USC’s Veterans Affairs coordinator
— have few departments, programs
or organizations to assist them.
The only USC department that
aids military veterans is the Office of
Veteran Affairs, which is housed in
the Office of Academic Records and
Registrar and only deals with enroll-ment
and financial issues.
The university has just one pro-gram
dedicated to college veterans:
The Marshall Military Veterans As-sociation,
which has nine members
and was created solely for students
earning a MBA.
Ralph Martinsen, the president of
the Marshall Military Veterans As-sociation
and a second-year MBA
candidate, spent four years in the
Marine Corps. and is still a captain
in the Corps. Reserve.
“I would love to expand our as-sociation
to the whole university,” he
said. “We want to get the undergrads
involved, and students in other de-partments
beyond the MBA pro-gram.”
Because there is not a group on
campus to help student veterans
transition to civilian life, many of
them said they learn to cope with the
changes on their own.
Chris Roessner, a commuter sena-tor
in USC’s Undergraduate Student
Government, enlisted in the Army
after high school six years ago and
served in Special Operations.
Roessner, who was part of the
initial invasion of Iraq in 2003 and
was on location when Saddam Hus-sein
was taken into custody, had a
The university has very few
programs for transitioning
from military to civilian life.
| see veterans, page 3 |
Photo courtesy of Ralph Martinsen
Service | Ralph Martinsen, pic-tured
here, is president of the
Marshall Military Veterans Assn.
Photo courtesy of Scott Lowe
Active duty | Scott Lowe, shown here on duty in Iraq, served two tours of duty between 2004 and
2006. He said he feels separate from many students on campus because of his experiences there.
Local schools plan
for state budget cuts
By KATELYN JOHNSON
Daily Trojan
Public schools in the USC com-munity
will soon experience budget
cuts caused by a statewide effort to
reduce California’s deficit.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
signed legislation Feb. 16 that elimi-nates
$4.8 billion in education fund-ing
by suspending guarantees set by
1988’s Proposition 98.
Proposition 98 guarantees 40 per-cent
of California’s general fund to
be spent on K-12 schools and com-munity
colleges. That 40 percent is
given mostly to K-12 schools, and
community colleges generally receive
around 10 percent.
Suspending Proposition 98’s
funds will make the schools’ budgets
tighter, and school officials said they
do not know how to respond be-cause
they do not have exact details
about available funds.
“Nobody knows the specifics of
anything — we just know general
stuff,” said Lynn Brown, principal
of L. B. Weemes Elementary School,
a member of the USC Family of
Schools. “It makes planning diffi-cult.”
Funding from Prop. 98 is
being suspended to try to
eliminate the state’s deficit.
| see budget, page 13 |
DPS unsupportive of new safety law
By KATE MAT H ER
Daily Trojan
A proposed provision to the
recently passed Higher Education
Act that would require college offi-cials
to notify and direct students,
faculty and staff within 30 minutes
of an emergency is receiving mixed
reactions from law enforcement
officials nationwide, including the
Department of Public Safety at
USC.
The Campus Law Enforcement
Emergency Response Act of 2007,
which is currently awaiting a Sen-ate
vote, not only mandates a
30-minute notification time frame
in case of a campus emergency, but
also requires that officials “direct
the actions” of the university, ac-cording
to the bill’s text.
It is because of this mandated
instruction that DPS Chief Carey
Drayton said he feels the bill would
be harmful to university safety.
“The issue of notification only
means I’m going to play like I’m
CNN Breaking News,” Drayton
said. “I can do that very easily. But
if I am expected to give direction
in that notification, that is what I
have a problem in doing. How can
I tell you what to do when I don’t
know the full extent of the situa-tion?”
Security on Campus, the watch-dog
group that lobbied Congress
to consider the bill, said recent
school shootings demonstrate the
need for a 30-minute time frame.
“At Northern Illinois University,
they had a 30-minute time frame,”
said Alison Kiss, program director
of Security on Campus. “Virginia
Tech took at least two hours. You
wonder would it have happened
at Virginia Tech had the students
been told to keep away from cam-pus.”
Virginia Tech has been criticized
DPS officials say the law
could actually be more
dangerous for students.
| see safety, page 12 |
Students are asked to get to
a safe area and avoid certain
buildings.
Police confi rm there has been a
shooting. All classes canceled and
campuses closed.
3:50 pM
Six deaths are confi rmed and shooter is
revealed to be a NIU graduate student.
8:15 pM
3:20 pM
Students told danger has
passed and they can return
to residence halls.
4:24 pM
Police confi rming
shooter is dead.
5:12 pM
Many of the shooting victims have been
transported to a hospital.
5:20 pM
4:10 pM
Police say scene is secure.
Students are notifi ed about
locations to obtain counseling.
4:31 pM
All NIU students are asked
to call their parents.
Source: www.rrstar.com
Opinion |
Columnist Beth Palkovic
looks at the history of
words in American poli-tics.
PAGE 6